Year of Yorkshire

Yorkshire seems likely to get plenty of attention when the newest film version of Jane Eyre is released early next year (Alice in Wonderland star Mia Wasikowska will play the titular role—and is it just us or is she awfully pretty to be playing the famously plain Jane?). The Brontë sisters lived and wrote in Yorkshire, and the family home is a museum today.

The beautiful, unspoilt scenery has been called “God’s Own Country,” and it’s easy to see why: The landscape has plenty of gently rolling hills covered with grasses and purple heather.

Beyond enjoying the moors, visitors can explore the Railway Museum or the Viking Center, and those caught up in the Twilight/True Blood craze will want to visit Whitby, where Bram Stoker was inspired to write Dracula. History buffs will want to visit Castle Howard, one of the Treasure Houses of England, a group of nine English stately homes. (The Howards have been one of the most significant families in England since at least the days of Richard III. For example, Catherine Howard was Henry VIII’s doomed fifth wife.)

There are two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, six Michelin-starred restaurants (the most outside of London), and more than 60 gardens open to the public.